User manual VIA KT333 WHITE PAPER

[. . . ] Reliability comes from using proven, modular components and evolutionary design principles in enabling the VIA Apollo KT333 to share the best characteristics of award winning previous g eneration products like the VIA Apollo KT266A. Flexibility comes from the North Bridge pin compatible with the KT266A and the industry's best choice of pin compatible VT8233 series South Bridge options enabling a variety of system configurations and price points based on the same mainboard design. [. . . ] The validation process will ensure DDR333 modules and devices are fully compatible with VIA DDR333 chipsets and comply with the DDR333 specification set out by JEDEC, the semiconductor industry standards body. DDR333 modules & devices produced before February 2002 do not meet this specification. For more information on the VIA DDR333 Validation Programme visit www. viatech. com and click on the DDR333 logo. ATA-133 Overview ATA-133 FastDriveTM is the fastest IDE standard currently available on the market, and allows each IDE controller to burst at rates of up to 133MB/s. This offers a significant performance improvement in data intensive professional applications and in consumer applications including gaming, audio and video. The faster interface will also save time when booting up the system and opening new applications. Each controller also supports up to two devices, for a total of four ATA-133 capable drives. In multiple configurations including RAID, the performance benefits of the faster interface are particularly apparent. The diagram below demonstrates the difference between ATA-133 and ATA-100 using the VT8233A South Bridge and. ATA-133 bursts 27% more data, offering a tangible performance benefit, as fast access to stored data becomes a more and more important component of system performance. HDTACH Burst Transfer Rate ATA-133 114 ATA-100 90 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 AMD Duron 900MHz system running Win98 with VIA KT266A North Bridge & VT8233A South Bridge. Data courtesy of Maxtor Corporation. Page 4 VIA Apollo KT333 Chipset White Paper VIA Apollo KT333 Product Overview The VIA Apollo KT333 consists of two separate chips: The 552-pin VT8367 North Bridge, and a choice of 376-pin VT8233 series V-Link South Bridges. Both use standard PGA packaging to reduce the cost of production and allow the use of standard heatsink solutions. The basic architecture of the chipset is shown in the illustration below. Page 5 VIA Apollo KT333 Chipset White Paper VIA Apollo KT333 North Bridge The North Bridge of the VIA Apollo KT333 (model number VT8367) provides support for flexible 200/266MHz Front Side Bus for AMD Socket A compatible processors. Deep pipelining and buffering keep the high-speed system bus supplied with a constant stream of data, maximizing the performance of the processor. [. . . ] VIA V-Link Chip to Chip Interface VIA has developed V -Link technology to remove the PCI bus as the bottleneck in inter-chip communication. In less advanced chipsets, the PCI bus is responsible for Page 6 VIA Apollo KT333 Chipset White Paper connecting both the North and South Bridge, as well as providing a bus for most add-in peripherals. [. . . ]